Nasher

6. Trengove 5. McDonald (not much love at all so far - was I watching the same game?) 4. Miller 3. Bennell 2. Jetta 1. Jamar

Paul Johnson was also drafted as a forward. Ricky Petterd was drafted as a defender. Where the kids played as juniors is largely irrelevant once they make another position their own. Garland is a defender -- and a very good one -- and I think we're just going to have to get used to that. I also don't think he was that bad on Le Cras despite it looking poor on paper. Every time Le Cras lead, Garland was right on his tail. Le Cras is very fast, leads very well and received some good delivery. Maybe I've got rose coloured glasses, but I didn't think there was a great deal more he - or anyone - could do on the day.

Thanks for the update. Hopefully the guy can have a bit of luck run his way because it certainly hasn't so far.

Strauss is keeping Strauss out of the side. In my eyes that spot is absolutely ripe for the picking.

Yep, it's absolutely fine. We clear? I don't write the code btw and I don't enforce that much either unless it's blatant and very offensive and even then I've been slammed for inaction in the past! My role here is primarily technical. If another mod sees my post as inappropriate I'm sure he or she will delete it. You are a bit of a tool though.

They're one and the same tool person - he just changed his username.

It disappoints me. Gysberts is surely ahead of both Jetta and Wonaeamirri at this point. And there's no way in the world Sylvia will be dropped. Crap form or not, game breakers do not get dropped. It's just the way of the world.

Bennell and Jurrah were monties to be re-signed really, so that's good news. Both have had obviously promising starts to their careers. Jetta is in my too hard basket to classify. I have no idea whether he's going to be useful in the long term or not, so for mine it's a re-signing to give him further opportunity to show what he's made of. It will be interesting to see how he develops.

There's a massive gulf between AFL level and VFL reserves, and that was an age ago. He's got zero credits in the bank.

Likewise. Form? Tick. Low key entry? Tick. Plenty of spaces in the side (injury/omissions)? Tick. Development year (commitment to inject games in to key future players)? Tick. The planets are aligned. There isn't going to be a better opportunity to bring him in than this week.

I don't know about you but I'm not going to be all that upset if the Essendon players keep handballing it to our blokes. That was a bit of a silly question really.

Absolutely - but what it does mean is that there's only two options, both outlined by Ash 1) Force _both_ sides to wear their 'clash' strip, as the only way to avoid a clash within the current AFL rules is for Melbourne to wear their clash jumper. Melbourne supporters can then piss and moan about not being allowed to wear the traditional jumper. 2) Suck it up and accept there will be a clash. Melbourne and Essendon supporters alike can then piss and moan about the clash. The AFL need to intervene and force Essendon to come up with a better clash jumper, but that's for next year at the earliest. For this year we're unfortunately stuck in this situation, and option 1) is the only feasible solution IMO - but for this year there's no solution that doesn't suck for us. Edit: I know I'm preaching to the converted to you t_u and that you understand the problem - this post I guess is more for the less perceptive posters who don't seem to get the point.

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the 'clash' jumpers are registered at the beginning of the year and do not / are not allowed to change during the year. The AFL can tell a side to wear its 'other' jumper for a specific clash, but they cannot tell a side to invent a new jumper throughout the year. Therefore Ash's points are all valid, and fair IMO.

Those, pretty much. I'm a huge fan of McKenzie, but he's an invisible type, much like James McDonald. Even on Demonland where we all know how good a player he is, yet he rarely gets much recognition in the player of the year votes. As someone said in this thread: Junior junior. I agree that his blood is worth bottling.

I agree - harsh on Green IMO. Don't know about Jamar either, he's been playing the role of Atlas this year carrying the team. Moloney, Davey and Rivers are probably our three biggest worries as 'leaders' when the wheels fall off. Thank heavens for James McDonald.

Nobody until Martin or Spencer are able to do more than just ruck.

McKenzie won't get a look in - wrong type of player. Who cares? We all know where he stands. The club knows where he stands. Jordie no doubt knows where he stands.

On the bright side, it makes a nice change from Spud Frawley continually calling our bloke Robbie Warnock.

Hah. As soon as I read the first post I was thinking "but was he eating chips and sauce?"

I thought that was the best bit of the interview too. To me he seemed lukewarm to the idea of one of the younger guys being captain and couldn't get Brent Moloney's name out fast enough, but I'm probably reading too much in to it.

They won't do that. The AFL would not cut off the bloodlines of one of their clubs over something petty. The worst they'll do is fine us.

I don't think that would/should apply to Wonaeamirri.

It's got nothing to do with getting the ball, the assessment should be the potential for damage, and the potential for damage for pulling someone's hair is negligible. The AFL frowning on head-high contact doesn't apply to this case. It doesn't fall within the spirit of the rule for head high contact - that's designed to reduce potential impact to the head (as opposed to the scalp), where the potential for damage is very high. As I said, the potential damage for pulling hair is very low. I'd say you haven't been punched in the stomach hard enough. It can do enough damage to limit your ability to play out the game and yes, it can do long term damage. Hair pulling in the manner that Mitchell did can do neither. I just want to make it clear that I'm not endorsing Mitchell's actions in any way, I just think calls for a suspension are going overboard.

I've had long hair and I've had it pulled. Yes it hurts, but beyond stinging like buggery for a few minutes it won't cause any long term damage. It doesn't hurt for any longer than a few minutes. A hard hip and shoulder hurts a lot more.

Overracting IMO. It would've stung like a bitch, but you can't really 'hurt' someone by pulling on their hair. It's not the same as punching a bloke in the guts. It looked pretty weak (pulling hair - LOL) but he shouldn't be rubbed out.